There is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,452,503, a method of terminating a solid metal shield of a semi-rigid coaxial cable which method comprises the steps of; inserting an end of the cable into a tubular connector body through one end thereof; driving a shield gripping tubular metal member in the form of a shield gripping ring, in surrounding relationship with the cable, into the connector body from said one end thereof, into force fitting relationship with the connector body, tightly to grip the cable shield, and thereby positioning a flange on the trailing end of the shield gripping ring proximate to said one end of the connector body and externally thereof. The shield gripping ring has projecting therefrom spline fingers which are forced into the shield of the cable as the shield gripping ring is driven into the connector body, so that effective electrical connection is made between the ring and the shield. Since the solid, relatively rigid, metal shield of such a cable tends to buckle when it is bent, the cable is unsuitable for use in a crowded environment, where it needs to be routed amongst other cables which have been terminated and are grouped together at an input-output panel, for example.
The rigid cable is bent to a desired orientation before assembling the cable to a connector. This avoids having to waste a connector if the cable is damaged by improper bending. A disadvantage is that the connector must be spaced a short distance from a bend in the cable, because the bend is a barrier to an assembly tool used to tighten the connector on the cable. A connector might be designed with loose component parts which will required a fixture to hold the parts stationary while solder is applied to join the parts to the cable. The bend in the cable is a barrier to the fixture. It would be desirable to have a cable that can be bent closely to an applied connector without risk of damage.
There is described in a new product bulletin referenced NP42-1, by Belden Wire and Cable, Richmond, Ind., (Copyright 1987 Cooper Industries Incorporated) a malleable coaxial cable called "conformable" coaxial cable, having a malleable external shield comprising a metal wire braid filled with a malleable metal, for example tin, by dipping the braid in the metal when in a molten state. Such cable, whilst retaining the electrical performance of the solid metal shielded cable mentioned above, has the advantage that it can readily be bent without buckling. When terminated, however, by the method described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,452,503, the electrical connection between the shield and the gripping of the cable shield.
Methods similar to those described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,452,503, are also described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,408,821, and 4,540,231. There is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,712,296, method of using an electrical induction heating ring in the form of conductive metal plate, to fuse together parts of a coaxial electrical connector.